Serial Shakespeare: An Infinite Variety of Appropriations in American TV Drama - Paperback

by Elisabeth Bronfen (Author)

Shakespeare is everywhere in contemporary media culture. This book explores the reasons for this dissemination and reassemblage. Ranging widely over American TV drama, it discusses the use of citations in Westworld and The Wire, demonstrating how they tap into but also transform Shakespeare's preferred themes and concerns. It then examines the presentation of female presidents in shows such as Commander in Chief and House of Cards, revealing how they are modelled on figures of female sovereignty from his plays. Finally, it analyses the specifically Shakespearean dramaturgy of Deadwood and The Americans. Ultimately, the book brings into focus the way serial TV drama appropriates Shakespeare in order to give voice to the unfinished business of the American cultural imaginary.

Back Jacket

Shakespeare is everywhere in contemporary media culture. Serial Shakespeare makes a unique contribution to understanding this dissemination and reassemblage by crossmapping the early modern plays with contemporary serial TV drama, creating a transhistoric conversation that is illuminating for creative readings of both.

By placing one drama, or a series of related dramas, at the center of each chapter, the book discloses unexpected lines of association to the Bard. A discussion of the use of citations in Westworld and The Wire illustrates how serial TV drama taps into but also transforms his preferred themes and concerns. A panoply of first female presidents is shown to be modelled on figures of female sovereignty from his plays. What might be called a specifically Shakespearean dramaturgy is analysed in Deadwood and The Americans. Each reading considers the Shakespearean texts again, from a different perspective, but also speaks to the way his plays come back to us from the past.

At the same time, the book brings into focus the way serial TV drama keeps appropriating Shakespeare to give voice to the unfinished business of the American cultural imaginary. Both, it claims, share the sense of writing in and for a period of interim.

Author Biography

Elisabeth Bronfen is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Zurich and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University